BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
